No community in the metro area has offered a better value on ranch plans than KB Home has in its Trailside neighborhood in Thornton, a mile from the interchange of I-25 and E-470.

Final homes at Thornton’s Trailside

Where: Final homes at Trailside by KB Home, master-planned community with park, trails; 11 ranch plans for early move-in, some ready now; model show home for sale; landscape maintained on some; community park. 15773 Elizabeth Cir. W., Thornton; take I-25 north past E-470 to Exit 229/Hwy 7, east 1.5 mi. to York, south to E. 158th; or from Thornton take York north, continue past E-470 overpass, a half mile.

KB Home roared through sales of its three collections there and now has only a dozen homes remaining, including 11 ranches, all with prices that are likely to look good to anyone who has searched for new ranches in Broomfield, Westminster or Thornton.

Most of those single-level offerings are part of a patio-ranch series, oriented in Trailside’s master plan so that each backs to an open space/walking trail corridor. They get a front-and-side-yard landscape maintenance package along with trash and snow removal — features many buyers want now with a ranch. Yet patio ranch residents currently pay only $102/month for that. Most are designed with fewer steps and a low-maintenance deck.

And Trailside has no age restriction in its all-ranch patio homes.

“Part of the reason we’ve sold rapidly is the quality and price of these ranch designs,” says Randy Carpenter, division president of KB Home Colorado. “But we’re also benefiting from a location that’s become very popular as new shopping and dining arrive here, and as commuters come to appreciate the easy connection to downtown, DIA and Boulder County.”

Right now, you can find a Boxelder patio ranch, with 2,235 square feet of finished space including a partially finished basement and a two-car attached garage, on track for October delivery. It offers a wide-open kitchen-family entertaining area, large master suite and a study on the main level, and a second bedroom and rec space in the lower level.

The price is $483,000 for a single-family ranch design. Despite the low-maintenance, KB Home gives its patio ranches attractive landscaping and provides a fenced-off backyard that some buyers use as an extended patio, for gardening or for a labradoodle to wander.

If you can reach a bit further, you can find a roomy Cottonwood ranch — 2,653 square feet finished — ready right now at $522,000.

KB also has two final homes available from its Reserve Collection at Trailside — one of them a family-sized two-story, the other a show-home ranch that KB Home will sell along with its designer landscape, special upgrades and decorator selections.

Can you wait for cooler weather to come see these? “We’ll be gone by then,” Carpenter says.

You’ll see how close this is to The Orchards Town Center and to a new St. Anthony hospital. Take I-25 north past E-470 to Colorado 7 and head east 1.5 miles to York, then south.

The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this post’s preparation.

Mark Samuelson has written about housing, business and real estate for The Denver Post for more than 25 years. He is president of Samuelson and Associates, a communications company that specializes in builder marketing, real estate, and energy technologies.